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Thursday, January 16, 2014

Top 5 Movies of 2013

For me 2013 was a kind of weak year for movie viewing pleasure. Not to say that there wasn't many good films, but most the films I'm looking forward to like The Wolf of Wall Street are 2014 releases here in Australia.
None the less I do have 5 movies I really loved in 2013!

5: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

I'm a big fan of the books, not just the first. Where as allot of people thought that the first book was great and they fall from there, I enjoy them all equally in part. As such I expected Catching Fire to be good and good especially after how well the first film was produced. Little did I expect it to be better than the source material though... I don't think I have ever said a movie was better than the book...
Well that just talks to how great Catching Fire was. In part thanks to the once again brilliant performances of the cast along with the fantastic Phillip Seymour Hoffman to the mix and the shorted games period, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is allot of fun and looks great.

4: Gravity

Gravity is a simple story and in reality could be a short but instead we get a feature film of claustrophobia's nightmares trapped in space.
Performances are great but the standout is Alfonso Cuaron for his masterful vision and Direction. This is a step forward for cinema, I had seen nothing like Gravity before and is defiantly something you need to watch in 3-D. Because the experience offered in Gravity is like nothing before.

3: Fast Six

The best entry in the FF franchise to date 'Fast Six', that's right six! Although it may sound like a dying dog not willing to go down the Fast franchise has grown and blossomed with age,
Fast 6 was the funnest flick I watched in 2013 without a doubt. The self-awareness allows it to get past being silly. That air plane chase? Who cares! It was awesome.
I will argue with anyone saying it's so bad it's good or compares it to brain dead action like a Michael Bay film, nope, this is just the best Action franchise around.

2: Silver Linings Playbook

On paper a story about a guy getting out of rehab and meeting a girl really sounds dis-hurting to my ears, 'chick flick territory' my flags cry. But you never told about the complexity of these characters and the ones around them. You never said the performances are grand, the writing funny and sad.
Silver Linings Playbook is all that I didn't get told and more.

1: Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino has always garnished criticism and mixed reviews but looking through Django's IMDB forums it goes 10, 1, 10, 10, 1, 1, 4, 6, 10. Much like the man himself, Django seemed to rub allot of people the wrong way.
Making a film on a certain topic should not preordain itself to certain rules eg: Slavery = Serious Drama. I'm just as interested to see Steve McQueens 12 Years a Slave but for different reason. Do I really want to trust the man who killed Hitler to get me an accurate historical look at Black Slavery and its trade?
Django Unchained is though highly enjoyable with a brilliant cast all grabbing the characters they were presented with and ridding into the sunset with them.